A Paradigm for the Study of the Social Meaning of Clothes: Complementarity of Social-Psychological Theories

Abstract

This paper offers a paradigm for the study of the social meaning of clothes. The paradigm orders four basic models in social psychology: cognitive, behavioral, bio-volitional, and symbolic. Each model differs in its assumptions on the nature of human behavior. The paper also sketches the metatheory (or model) underlying each of the four theoretical perspectives in social psychology. It is argued that theories in social psychology differ only in the sense that the models on which they are based focus on different combinations of the paradigm elements: stimulus (S), organism or person (0), andresponse (R). Methods and strategies of inquiry related to individual models are also identified and subsumed under the paradigm. Finally, the metatheories of the four perspectives are outlined as they relate to the study of clothing. Metatheories sketched in this paper may be used to examine similarities and differences among theoretical perspectives adopted by clothing scholars and to pinpoint what is missing in our understanding of the social meaning of clothes.